Items Allowed During Exam Breaks

During your scheduled breaks, you may access only food, water, and medication. All break policies are outlined in the MCAT Essentials and Testing Center Regulations and Procedures, which you are required to read. Please be especially mindful of the following policies while taking your breaks, or at any time after check-in and prior to completing the exam:

Do NOT access your cell phone or any other electronic device. Better yet, leave these devices at home or in your car. Even holding or touching an electronic device is considered a violation of MCAT policies and will be treated as such.

Do NOT access any notes or other study materials.

Do NOT leave the testing center.

If you need to access food, water, or medication, make sure to remove the item from any bag, purse, or backpack you may have brought to the testing center. The bag MUST remain in the provided storage at all times.

Note:Your test time will stop only for the allotted scheduled break time, so plan your scheduled breaks accordingly and allow time for checking into the testing room. Once you are seated for your exam after your scheduled break, you will be required to start your exam even if your full break time has not expired.

MCAT Essentials

Top 10 Tips For MCAT Examinees: Test Day

After many months of studying, practicing, and reviewing, your MCAT exam is just around the corner. To help you have the best possible test day experience, the AAMC developed a list of the top 10 tips to prepare you for test day.

MCAT Security Tip Line

The MCAT program considers the integrity and security of the exam process to be very important.

If you observe any irregular behavior or exam security violations before, during, or after an examination, please call or email the MCAT Security tip line. If you choose to remain anonymous, the AAMC will not disclose your identity unless required by law.

Training in a Residency or Fellowship

The Association of American Medical Colleges is a not-for-profit association dedicated to transforming health care through innovative medical education, cutting-edge patient care, and groundbreaking medical research. Its members are all 152 accredited U.S. and 17 accredited Canadian medical schools; nearly 400 major teaching hospitals and health systems, including 51 Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers; and more than 80 academic societies. Through these institutions and organizations, the AAMC serves the leaders of America’s medical schools and teaching hospitals and their more than 173,000 full-time faculty members, 89,000 medical students, 129,000 resident physicians, and more than 60,000 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in the biomedical sciences.